Before my senior year in high school, I had the privilege of participating in a summer-long exchange program with a host family in the beautiful colonial city of Orizaba, Vera Cruz, Mexico. (Here’s the map, and here’s a street view of the family’s home, behind the gate. The second story has been added since I was there. But otherwise, how cool is Google maps?) Orizaba was best known for two things: 1) it lay at the base of the Pico de Orizaba, a dormant volcano which is Mexico’s tallest peak, and 2) it was the orignal home of CervecerÃ­a Moctezuma, the brewer of Dos Equis, Tres Equis, SuperiÃ³r, Sol and Noche Buena brands of beer.

It was the experience of a lifetime, and I learned so much about Mexico that I never would have learned any other way. For example, one of the surprises for me was how popular mayonnaise was there. You never would have guessed it, but it was used quite a lot. Whenever you bought a torta (a kind of sandwich) from a street vendor, it often had huge globs of mayonnaise oozing out the sides. I was especially shocked when my “brothers” slathered mayonnaise on their corn-on-the-cobs one afternoon.

I bring that up because mayonnaise, it turns out, played an important role in Mexican history. It was during the French occupation under Emperor Maximilian when le mayonnaise was introduced in Mexico, and for the next few years the national craze was satisfied by ships from France which brought the sought-after condiment in barrels carefully packed in ice through the port of Vera Cruz. But in 1864, a fierce Atlantic storm sank a fleet of ships carrying a very large supply, sparking a severe national shortage that lasted for weeks. And so on this date every year since then, Mexico commemorates that tragic event with the holiday they call…

TODAY’S AGENDA:Okay, actually Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army’s surprise victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The victory proved temporary. As French forces withdrew from Puebla towards Vera Cruz, they were able to contain the pursuing Mexican army at Orizaba a month later. Outside of the state of Puebla, it is not an official Mexican holiday. In fact, it is more widely celebrated in the United States than it is in Mexico. Many Mexican-Americans look to the holiday as a celebration of their cultural heritage, but for everyone else it’s an excuse for faux-Mexican restaurants to break out their cheap tchotchkes, recycle bad 1950’s stereotypes, and promote happy hour specials on Coronas, margaritas and appetizers. Olé!

TODAY IN HISTORY:Marriage In Hawaii, Almost: 1993. In the case of Baehr v Lewin, Nina Baehr sued the state of Hawaii over the state’s refusal to issue her and her partner a marriage license. That refusal, according to their lawsuit, amounted to illegal discrimination. On May 5, 1992, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that her argument had merit. They didn’t rule Hawaii’s ban illegal, but remanded the case to a lower court, and placed the burden on the state to prove that it had a compelling interest under strict scrutiny for denying same-sex partners a marriage license.

The case would drag on for another six years with little doubt about where the state Supreme Court would go if the case made its way back there again. And so on 1998, voters approved Amendment 2 to the state constitution, which made Hawaii the first state to amend its constitution to address same-sex marriage. But unlike other state constitutional amendments that would follow, Hawaii’s Amendment 2 didn’t ban same-sex marriage outright. It granted Hawaii’s legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples, which it later did by passing a law that banned same-sex marriage.

In February of 2011, Hawaii’s governor signed into law a bill granting civil unions to the state’s same-sex couples. That law took effect on January 1, 2012.

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:Del Martin: 1921. In 1955, Martin and Phyllis Lyon, her lifelong partner, along with six other women, founded the Daughters of Bilitis, which became the first major lesbian organization in the United States. Phyllis edited the DOB’s newsletter The Ladder beginning in 1956, with Del contributing a groundbreaking essay in the very first edition. Del herself edited The Ladder from 1960 to 1962. The Daughters eventually disbanded in 1970 after having established chapters all across the United States.

In 1964, Del and Phyllis helped to found the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, bringing together national religious leaders and gay and lesbian activists for a national discussion of gay rights. Later, Del was heavily involved in getting the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. In 2008, Del and Phyllis became the first same-sex couple to be married after the California’s Supreme Court ruling legalizing marriage equality. Del passed away two months later.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

(*) Obviously, mayonnaise was not shipped from France to Mexico. But in 1978 they did sell the American brand Best Mayonaise in local stores. And I may have exaggerated its popularity, but it really is true that my “brothers” coated their corn-on-the-cobs with it. Totally grossed me out.

We Californians love that our little local holiday which we have been celebrating for 149 years is now enjoyed by so many others.

And Californian,as a free state, had good reason to celebrate. If the Puebla defenders had not held off the French, they would have established control over their “Mexican Empire” in time to support the South (it is argued that the goal of conquering Mexico was primarily to work towards breaking up the States).

But by the time the French established their brief empire, Gettysburg had happened and they were too late. It is not unreasonable to view Zaragoza as a defender of the Union, and Cinco de Mayo as an unquestionably Mexican-American holiday.

Indeed, it should be celebrated not only as a day to respect and enjoy Mexican heritage, but as a day to recognize how our two nations rely on and impact each other.

In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.

When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.

In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.

From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”

On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.

Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!

Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.

Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.

Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.

The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.